Short Answer Study Guide Questions - Dracula
Chapters 1-2:
1. What is the setting of the first part of the story?
2. What does Jonathan Harker find waiting for him when he arrives at the Golden Krone Hotel?
3. Why does the hotel landlady beg Jonathan not to continue his journey?
4. What does the landlady of the hotel give Jonathan Harker for protection against evil?
5. Who are the “children of the night?”
6. What does Jonathan Harker notice is absent from every room he enters in the castle?
7. What does the Count want Jonathan Harker to teach him while at Castle Dracula?
8. What is Jonathan Harker’s occupation, and what is his purpose for coming to Transylvania?
9. When Jonathan Harker looks in his shaving mirror, what peculiar thing does he notice about the Count?
Chapters 3-4:
1. Count Dracula claims to be the ancestor of what famous warrior?
2. Describe the Count’s reaction to finding the women with Jonathan Harker.
3. What happens to the women and the bag?
4. The Count instructs Jonathan to write three letters home. What is the content of these letters?
5. What does Jonathan discover upon waking on 31 May?
6. When Count Dracula leaves the castle on 24 June, what does Jonathan Harker notice?
7. Jonathan decides to climb the wall of the castle into the Count’s room. Describe what Jonathan Harker discovers in the
Count’s room.
Chapters 5-6:
1. What is the relationship between Mina Murry and Jonathan Harker?
2. Describe the patient who seems to be of most interest to Dr. Seward.
3. What does the old man that Mina and Lucy meet claim about the tombstones in the cemetery?
4. Describe Renfield’s systematic way of collecting lives.
5. What unusual thing does Renfield eat? Why?
6. What odd, recent behavior of Lucy is disturbing to Mina?
Chapters 7-8:
1. What is discovered on board the mysterious schooner?
2. What is the only living thing on the ship?
3. According to the captain’s addendum to the ship’s log, what happened to the men on the ship?
4. What happens to the old man who had befriended Mina and Lucy?
5. On August 11 what does Mina discover when she awakens in the night?
6. What does Mina see in the moonlit churchyard when she goes looking for Lucy?
7. What makes Mina think that she pricked Lucy accidentally with a safety pin?
8. On the night of August 13 what does Mina see outside the window?
Chapters 9-10:
1. What begins happening to Lucy upon her return home to Hillingham?
2. Describe Lucy’s condition when Dr. Seward and Van Helsing visit her on September 7th.
3. Who arrives and offers to help in Van Helsing’s first treatment of Lucy?
4. What specific instruction does Van Helsing give Dr. Seward regarding Lucy before he left for Amsterdam?
5. What does Van Helsing discover upon his return to Hillingham?
6. Who aids Van Helsing in the second transfusion to Lucy?
7. What is in the package that Van Helsing receives from abroad?
Chapters 11-12:
1. What does Mrs. Westenra tell Van Helsing that causes him to break down in tears?
2. Explain what happens to Lucy’s mother.
3. Describe what Dr. Seward and Van Helsing see in Lucy’s bedroom.
4. Who gives blood in Lucy’s fourth transfusion?
5. What strange action does Lucy do just as she was falling asleep after the fourth transfusion?
6. Describe the alarming physical changes in Lucy Westenra.
7. What does Van Helsing do when Arthur attempts to kiss Lucy?
8. What ultimately becomes of Lucy Westenra?
Chapters 13-14:
1. What do Dr. Seward and Van Helsing notice about Lucy’s body when they go to pay their respects?
2. What does Van Helsing want to do with Lucy’s body?
3. What happens when the maid sits by Lucy’s body during the night?
4. Who is Lord Godalming?
5. What secret do Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Quincy Morris vow to keep from Arthur?
6. What strange occurrences begin taking place in Hampstead not long after Lucy’s funeral?
7. What does Mina learn that upsets her terribly?
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8. After reading Mina’s letters to Lucy, Dr. Van Helsing requests a visit with Mina. What
9. specific event does he ask Mina to share in detail?
10. What does Mina allow Van Helsing to read?
11. What change comes over Jonathan after reading Van Helsing’s note about the diaries?
Chapters 15-17:
1. What do Van Helsing and Dr. Seward find when they open Lucy’s coffin?
2. What do Dr. Seward and Van Helsing discover when they return to Lucy’s tomb the
following afternoon?
3. How does Van Helsing intend to keep Lucy inside her tomb at night?
4. According to Van Helsing, what do the Eastern Europeans call the Un-Dead?
5. Who strikes the blow that sets Lucy’s soul free?
6. What happens to Lucy’s body after the stake is driven through her heart?
7. What does Van Helsing give to Dr. Seward before he leaves for Amsterdam?
8. What happens that causes Arthur to swear that he would be a life-long brother to Mina Harker?
Chapters 18-19:
1. What is Renfield’s method of “tidying up” his cell before Mina’s visit?
2. List the powers that Van Helsing claims Count Dracula has as a nosferatu.
3. What limitations does Van Helsing say that a vampire has?
4. What does Quincey Morris claim he was shooting at when he broke the parlor window at
Dr. Seward’s home?
5. How does Van Helsing prepare Dr. Seward and the others to go to Carfax to find the Count?
6. What does Jonathan Harker notice about his wife when he returns from Carfax?
7. What strange dream does Mina describe?
Chapters 20-21:
1. What change does Jonathan Harker notice about Mina?
2. Renfield says that he wants life from other beings, but he does not want something else.
What is it he does not want?
3. After Dr. Seward leaves Renfield, what does the doctor realize?
4. What procedure does Van Helsing perform on Renfield?
5. What does Count Dracula promise Renfield in exchange for letting him into the asylum?
6. What does Renfield notice about Mina Harker?
7. Describe the encounter between Renfield and Dracula when the Count returns to the asylum.
8. Describe the scene Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, Lord Godalming, and Quincey Morris witness after breaking down the door to
the Harkers' bedroom.
Chapters 22-23:
1. What do the men discover when they return to Renfield’s room?
2. Mina vows to kill herself if she will endanger the others in any way. Why does Dr. Van
Helsing tell her this can not be?
3. Why does Van Helsing say that the group will be unlikely to run into the Count during the day?
4. What are the men distressed to learn about the boxes of earth at the Piccadilly house?
5. Describe the physical changes that have taken place in Jonathan Harker in the past twenty four hours.
6. What does Van Helsing learn of Count Dracula’s mortal life?
7. What message is delivered to Van Helsing at the Piccadilly house?
8. Who is the first to attempt to attack the Count upon Dracula’s arrival at Piccadilly?
Chapters 24-25:
1. Where does Van Helsing believe that the Count is going?
2. Why does the Czarina Catherine not sail out on time?
3. What is a constant reminder that the events surrounding Dracula are real and not a dream?
4. Why does Van Helsing propose to keep Mina in the dark about the group’s plans for the Count?
5. What weapon does Quincey Morris suggest the group should add to their arsenal?
6. Who is “Judge Money-bag” that Jonathan Harker refers to in his journal?
Chapters 26-27:
1. What seems to be happening to Mina’s hypnotic trances?
2. What had the Romanians on the crew of the Czarina Catherine requested several times of their captain?
3. What becomes of Petrof Skinsky who has claimed the Count’s box from the ship?
4. What single word does Mina hesitate to write in her journal?
5. What seems to arouse the superstitions of the people that Van Helsing and Mina meet along their journey?
6. Describe the changes in Mina’s behavior since she and Van Helsing separated from the others.
7. How is Count Dracula finally destroyed?
8. What becomes of the members of the group after their terrible ordeal?
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